How I made £21,000 on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has been a really valuable tool for me as a professional. I regularly pick up work on there are have a lot of relevant high-profile people connecting with me. I now have over 6000 connections and while numbers aren’t everything when it comes to this particular social network, it does mean I have a lot of people seeing my content.

There are a lot of people doing sales wrong on LinkedIn, they’re impersonal and irrelevant. People send pitches as soon as they connect, or just send a general Inmail that has nothing to do with my business or how I run it.

I decided I wanted to do things differently so I set out to up my LinkedIn sales game by learning from everyone else’s mistakes. I created a message template that gave obvious benefit to the prospect, explained exactly what I could do and gave a firm call to action. This template helped me to make £21,000 from one client.

If you’ve set up a motorsport business, you might be looking at LinkedIn as a sales tool. It’s a wonderful place to drum up business but you need to do it right. You can download the very template I used at the bottom of this post but, first, here’s some advice.

Complete your profile

If your profile is incomplete, a lot of potential employers are going to just pass you by. Go through your introduction, work experience and skills to make sure everything is there that needs to be. Consider your goals for being on LinkedIn, what do you want people to think about you when they look at your profile?

Get a decent photo

No selfies from the club. Find a photo that looks professional and, if possible, shows you doing the job you want (interviewing a racing driver, working on a car, giving an after-dinner speech etc.).

List your achievements

Update your tag line

Opt for something simple and to-the-point. Even for someone like me with a lot of job roles, I keep it simple: PR, journalist and motorsport consultant.

Update regularly

Use LinkedIn’s social features to connect with people properly. The more you’re posting, the more people outside of your network are seeing what you can do. Make sure each post shows your expertise. For example, a television presenter might share their showreel, an engineer might post updates from a car build, or a journalist may post an article about F1 rules and open up a discussion.

Where possible, ask questions to get people involved and commenting as this is how your post will be spread far and wide.

Comment regularly

Go through your timeline and comment on the posts of people you’re connected with. Make sure you have something worthwhile to say and, again, show your expertise. People will start to notice. Comments will get your name and your tagline in front of new people too.

Connect with the right people

It’s important that you connect with the right people. If you’re looking for a job, connect with recruitment agency staff and HR managers.

You should also look for motorsport business owners, managing directors and CEOs. these are the decision makers you’ll want to pitch to when the time comes.

These people may also post relevant job adverts as they come up or call for freelancers when they need outside help.

Include a message when you connect

You have a better chance of creating a connection if you include a message with your request. Don’t use this to launch into your pitch but instead talk about expanding your network. This is a good way to open up a dialogue with someone so show an interest and, if you want a reply, ask a question about them and their work.

I don’t tend to use this method as I already have a wide connection base (6,000+ and counting) and appear in a lot of ‘people you may know’ recommendations. I mostly get connection requests and accept them but if I am looking for new people to connect with, it’s always from the suggested connection list, which sends a one-click invitation.

Engage

Make sure you engage with these people so they see your name. If they’re updating regularly, make sure to offer worthwhile comments that give a little bit of an insight into what you can do. This is important as when it comes to contacting them, you’ll have already created a bit of a rapport.

Let people know what you want

Don’t be afraid to update LinkedIn with details of what you do and your search for a job or new clients. You’d be surprised how many people will be willing to tag connections that could help. People may even start tagging you in the job opportunities they see that could be relevant.

You can download the very same pitch template I used to make £21,000 on LinkedIn. It’s completely free, just fill in the form below.

Download your free LinkedIn template

Download the very template I used to land a £21,000 client. Just fill in your details and it'll be emailed directly to you.